Brake-operating mechanism for vehicles



March 17, 1931. H. JAGGAR 1,797,148

BRAKE OPERATING MECHANISM FOR VEHICLES Filed July 25, 1929 Patented Mar. 17, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- HERBERT JAGGA R, OF HUDDERSFIELD, ENGLAND BRAKE-OPERATING MECHANISM FOR, VEHICLES Application filed July 25, 1929, Serial No. 381,028, and in Great Britain July 27, 1928.

My invention relates to brake-operating mechanism for vehicles, and has for its object to provide a locking and releasing device, for a pivoted brake lever, which does not depend upon the use of a ratchet toothed quadrant or segment, the teeth of which are engaged by a pawl on the brake lever.

With the ratchet and pawl arrangement, should the ratchet teeth become worn or broken, slipping of the brake may. occur. My improved device, aims at preventing any possibility of slipping of the brake, and also at providing a finer brake adjustment than is possible by the means above mentioned.

The improved device is characterized in that a wedge member, adapted to slide between a fixed bar or member and a bar or member pivotally connected at one end to said fixed member, is acted upon by a spring actuated part associated with the brake lever and upon movement of the latter in a di rection to apply the brake is caused to move inwardly between the fixed and movable parts, the pull of the brake or brakes then tending to move outwardly along the wedge a ring member or equivalent which binds the wedge in position. To enable the brakes to be released, a hand grip is provided on the brake lever, and is connected to the springactuated part acting upon the wedge, so that the wedge can be moved outwardly.

In the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is an elevation of a device embodying the invention in one form, the brake lever and other parts being shown in full lines in the oii position, and in dotted line in the on position;

Fig. 2 is a detail elevation showing the parts in the wedge-releasing position; and

Fig. 3 is a detail illustrating a mod1fied construction of means for moving the wedge.

Referring to the drawing, a represents.

brake actuating mechanism are not shown as they form no part of the invention.

The upper edge of the bracket a forms a 5 segment of a circle struck from the pivot lever.

centre c, and at one end of the upper edge said bracket has a lug a on which is pivoted one end of a curved bar (Z.

A wedge 0 adapted to slide between the curved upper surface of the bracketand the curved inner face of the bard, has two projections e and (2 adapted to be engaged respectively by the depending fingers f and f of a'member f mounted pivotally on a pin 9 projecting from the brake lever connected at one end to th Z). A spring h, e brake lever and plying direction the wedge wards the pivot of the bar will be moved to- A hand grip z' pivoted to the brake lever f on the side of its pivot finger P, so that actuation will cause the finger f to projection e on the wedge bar (Z. s

A boss on the pin 9 rid at z" is connected by a linkj to the member remote from the of thehand grip bear against the and move the latter outwardly or away from the pivot of the es upon the upper surface of the bar (Z, and another boss is, on a pin lt projecting from the brake lever, rides against the upper surface of a segmental slot m struck from the pivot centre of the brake A link or bar 22 connects the two pins 1 and is andserves, with the brake lever, to retain the wedge in position laterally.

The two bosses l6 and 70, with the brake lever and thelink or bar a constitute together a ring member encircling the bar d and the co-operating surfaceoi the bracket a, and as the brake lever is moved in a direction to member is moved towards the point o1 pivotal connection of the bar to the bracket, the wedge member being at the same time drawn inwardly by means of the finger f under the action of the spring 72 Immediately the brake-applying movement of the brake lever is stopped, the pull of the brake or brakes thereon causes the lever to tend to move the ring member outwardly along the bar (Z.

As the angle made by the bar with the fixed bracket has been increased by the following: up movement of the wedge, the ring member cannot move outwardly, but binds the bar (1 upon the wedge, and the greater the brake pull the greater the binding or locking action the ring member is caused to exert.

To release the brake, the brake lever is eased forward slightly to relieve the pres sure on the wedge, and the latter is withdrawn by operation of the hand grip. The brake lever can thenbe moved back to release the brake, carrying with it the wedge which is at all times held by the spring h in a readyto-engage" position.

In place ofthe rocking member f, with its depending fingers f and i for movingthe wedge, a plate such as 2), Fig. 4, with inclined surfaces 1) and 12 may be provided, a spring it" normally pressing the plate downwardly so that the surface 12 bears against theprojection e and presses the wedge in an engaging direction, whilst a connection j to the hand grip enables the plate to be raised and the face p to press against the projection e and move the wedge in a releasing direction. The pins 9 and k with their respective bosses and the link a will be employed as before, but for the sake of clearness have not been shown in Fig. 3.

The actual details of construction, arrangement and disposition of the parts employed may be varied otherwise than as above stated to suit any particular make of vehicle to which the invention is being applied, and it will be apparent that whilst being primarily or mainly intended for use in connection with the brake apparatus of vehicles the device is capable of use in other directions, where it is desired to hold a pivoted lever in any position of adjustment to which itmay be moved.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by'Letters Patent is 1. A device of the character describedcomprising a lever, two members one of which is pivoted, a wedge membermova ble between said members to swing the pivoted member in one direction, the lever having a portion to contact with the pivoted member when it is swung in said direction, so as to prevent movement of the lever in one direction, means on the lever for moving the Wedge member with the lever and operable manually to move the wedge member relatively to the lever and swingsaid pivoted member in the aforesaid direction, and spring means for urging said wedge member in the direction to permit said pivoted member to swing in the opposite direction.

2. A device of the character described comprising a lever, a fixed member, a pivoted member, a wedge member movable between said members to swing the pivoted member away fromthe fixed. member when the wedge member moves toward the pivot of said pivoted member, the lever having a portion to contact with said pivoted member when the lever is swung away from said pivot to limit such movement of the lever, means on the lever for moving the wedge member with the lever and operable manually to move the wedge member-relatively to the lever toward said' pivot, and spring means for urging the wedge member relatively to the lever away from said pivot.

33. A device of'the character described comprising a lever, a fixed member having a curved portion, a curved bar having one end pivoted to said;fixedrmemberga wedge member movable between said bar and portion to swing said bar-away from said portion when the-wedge member is moved toward the pivot of said bar, the lever having means surrounding said portion and bar and: adapted to contact with said bar when the lever swung away from said pivot, to limit such movement of the lever, means on the lever for moving the wedge member with the lever and operable manually to move the wedge member relatively to the lever toward said pivot, and spring means for urging said wedge member relatlvely to the lever away from the plvot.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

HERBERT J AGGAR. 

